TROUBLESOME RISING DIGITAL ANTHOLOGY
The Time it Takes
Marc Harshman
for a stream
to suddenly become
a wall of water
racing against time,
racing life against death.
The time it takes
to pray
Lord Help Us.
The time it takes
to see the barn
crumble into the stream
now become river.
The time it takes
to get to higher ground.
The time to it takes
to see memories erased.
The time it takes
to fill out a FEMA form.
The time it takes
to elect someone
who’s actually stood
in the mud…. with us.
The time it takes
for these words
to scatter their seeds
and elect someone
with a conscience
larger than their checkbook.
The time it takes
a dragline
to spell d-o-o-m.
The time it takes
a fracking pond
to overflow
and add poison
to the flood.
The time it takes
to sing a hymn.
The time it takes
to fiddle the tune
would take us home.
The time it takes
to remember
the way it was.
The time it takes
once more to pray. . .
Lord Help Us.
Marc Harshman’s collections of poetry include Woman in Red Anorak [Lynx House], winner of the Blue Lynx Prize, Believe what You Can [WVU Press], winner of the Weatherford Award, and Following the Silence, [Press 53]. Dispatch from the Mountain State is just out from WVU Press. He was recently named Appalachian Heritage Writer by Shepherd University. He is also the author of fourteen nationally acclaimed children’s books. He has been Poet Laureate of West Virginia since 2012.
Edited by Melissa Helton
Length: 272 pages
Releases: September 2024
